Brown, Turner and Beaman to Represent United States at World Cup USA

In a tightly contested Men’s Air Pistol Selection Match, World Cup gold medalist Will Brown (Twin Falls, Idaho, pictured) along with Olympians Jason Turner (Rochester, N.Y.) and Brian Beaman (Selby, S.D.) have emerged to represent the United States at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup event March 27 – April 4 in Fort Benning, Ga.

World Cup USA selections are made by adding qualification points together over two courses of fire along with the points earned from a competitor’s respective finals placement, with the first-place finisher earning eight additional points to their qualification score for the day.

The top-three athletes in each of the five pistol events contested at this Selection Match are assured a spot on the World Cup USA roster. The event is also serving as Part I of a two-part selection process to determine the USA Shooting Team that will compete at the upcoming ISSF World Championships in September. The final half of the World Championship, CAT and remaining World Cup selection will also take place May 9-22 in Fort Benning, Ga.

Brown led in qualification both days (583, 579) and earned additional points for second and first-place finishes in each day’s final to secure a 19-point victory over his competitiors. Brown won his gold medal at World Cup USA in Fort Benning last year.

Second through fourth-place finishes overall were separated by only three points. Turner finished in second and third in each day’s qualification round (576, 573), but fifth and fourth place finishes in each day’s final gave him the added points to finish in second overall with 1158 points total for the selection match.

Beaman may have finished in fourth-place in qualifications each day (572, 572) but a win in Monday’s final and fifth place in today’s final gave him the points (1156) to narrowly take the third-place position – just one point ahead of James Henderson (Midland, Ga.) of the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit.

Women’s Sport Pistol kicked off its first day of competition as well. Though Enkelejda Shehaj (Naples, Fla.) won today’s final, she is currently sitting in second-place overall with 576 points behind Women’s Sport Pistol National Champion Teresa Meyer Chambers (Dearborn, Mich.) who finished third in today’s final, but ended the day with a leading total of 584. 2012 Olympian Sandra Uptagrafft (Phenix City, Ala.) is sitting in third place thus far with 573 points. Chambers and Uptagrafft already qualified earlier this week in the Air Pistol event.